108 replies to this topic

[JAnt]

In response to bmb1bee,

This is one of my first colonies, along with Camponotus vicinus. My best advice is the dedication to giving the care your colony deserves properly. I honestly just took ANTdrew’s advice (it’s somewhere in this journal) to increase heat + protein, then my colony tripled in size, lol

Edited by JAnt, June 23 2023 - 3:23 AM.

[lazyant]

Your colony is amazing man, better than any attempts of pheidole from me.

[antsriondel]

Incredible. 

[gs5248]

 

Can Pheidole californica mate inside their own nest? Just wondering.

I’m also curious; maybe someone knowledgeable can answer.

 

 

From my experience yes. My Pheidole Californica colony had alates last year (around 2 years old at that point), and now the queens are still around. So I assumed they mated. Plus, I think I may have seen two of them laying eggs at the same time, even though the colony originally only had one queen. 

Edited by gs5248, July 12 2023 - 8:35 AM.

[JAnt]

Update!

It’s been two months since my last update. I finally got some fantastic photos, especially one of the ones I described in my earlier entries in this journal, but I wasn’t able to provide a visual.

Overall, they’ve been active and doing great! There are a lot of broods and Queens I still doubt are fertilized, but they’ve been around taking care of the broods. In my observation, there are no signs of alate productions this year, nor I’m able to keep track of the two original queens of this colony, but the colony is thriving, so no problem!




Here’s what I described in my earlier journals. Walls covered by brood!


3 years and 6 months!

Edited by JAnt, August 4 2023 - 11:43 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Awesome! My bicarinata are producing new queens again ; they should eclose any day now. This is year three for them as well.

Edited by ANTdrew, August 5 2023 - 3:02 AM.

[JAnt]

Awesome! My bicarinata are producing new queens again; they should close any day now. This is year three for them as well.

That’s awesome! Let’s keep it going! I have a small bicarinata on the side I’m keeping. Your Journal is helpful.

[ANTdrew]

I need to do an update for sure.

[JAnt]

Update!

This colony is still doing awesome! They had a die out of about two XL mini hearths worth of workers, but at the beginning of last month/update, Their population had been booming, and all five mini hearths are close to filling up once again, and I might decide to connect another mini hearth possibly another XL hearth… or go XXL

This colony still has a ton of brood piled up, but no signs of any winged alates for this generation.

This colony only keeps all their queens in one mini hearth.



Three years and seven months!
Thanks for checking out this journal!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Update!

This colony is still doing awesome! They had a die out of about two XL mini hearths worth of workers, but at the beginning of last month/update, Their population had been booming, and all five mini hearths are close to filling up once again, and I might decide to connect another mini hearth possibly another XL hearth… or go XXL

This colony still has a ton of brood piled up, but no signs of any winged alates for this generation.

This colony only keeps all their queens in one mini hearth.



Three years and seven months!
Thanks for checking out this journal!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by JAnt, September 15 2023 - 3:14 PM.

[antsriondel]

Nice colony! I just bought my first Pheidole colony and was wondering how did you get your colony to such a size? And how did you promote their success rate? Thanks.

[AntsCali098]

How many queens do they have?

[JAnt]

This colony was a slow starter, and I always had die-outs every few months while other queens grew a colony fast.

I would advise feeding consistently with proteins and having sweets and seeds always available. Heat boosts the colony growth much faster, too

Edited by JAnt, September 15 2023 - 5:49 PM.

[JAnt]

AntsCali

2 Queens originally, then they produced their first alates last year and kept all the dealate queens.

I don't have proof whether the new queens are inbred or not, but they hang around the broods all the time.

There's no telling the difference between my originals and the new generation, besides when they become physogastric.

Last time I counted, there was a total of 30-40 queens

Edited by JAnt, September 15 2023 - 5:31 PM.

[JAnt]

Here's what the two original queens with their gaster a bit smaller from their psygogastrism at that time and the alates with their wings on


Check out all these alates huddled together in one spot!

[/quote]

[AntsCali098]

Such an impressive colony! How do you tell the original queens apart from the others?

[AntsCali098]

Such an impressive colony! How do you tell the original queens apart from the others?

[JAnt]

Such an impressive colony! How do you tell the original queens apart from the others?

It’s difficult to tell the queens apart from each other.

[JAnt]

Update!

Hey everyone, how are you all doing?

It's been hot these last few days, and I had to turn off the heating wires. The colony’s activity was greatly affected by the increase in temperature and turned highly active, with more foragers roaming around the outworld a ton more than usual; I had to give them double their regular meals. Their brood is still impressive, as usual!!!


I expect colossal growth this month before they slow back down for the winter in a few months!

Three years and eight months!
Thanks for checking out this journal!

Edited by JAnt, October 8 2023 - 10:48 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Nice work! My colony pulled off a small escape when their fluon wore out one day. They also did their yearly queen alate cull last week. Yikes!

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

a 3 year old colony?
could you post an image of their full setup?
I am alwasy curious what a colony's "total setup" looks like as they grow.
the upclose images are great, but the big picture context of how their whole world looks helps me learn a lot about how people are dealing in their colony's need for more space.

The evolution of, they started in this, then moved into this, then expanded to all this, and so on and so on. Holds a lot of intrest for me.

 

Thanks for any tme and effort you can spare,
FFY

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, October 9 2023 - 10:18 AM.